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| What kenya needs to spur growth and development: a youthful perspective |
 PRINTABLE VERSION |
Kenya is currently going through a constitutional brouhaha, as everybody seems to have a different say on what parts of the constitution they want altered and for what reasons. The wrangling, unfortunately for the common man, is taking its toll on the country’s development prospects. What many are now questioning is the genuineness of Kenya’s politicians in delivering a new constitution as promised in their election pledges.
I am not a politician and neither is politics my cup of tea. I would prefer to label myself as a development expert or better still, a development conscious Kenyan and an African at that. The fact that Kenya had a similar growth rate of 6% with South Korea some three decades ago brings to focus a litany of questions as to what went wrong along the way to such an extent that the country’s GDP plummeted by as low as 2% in the past decade alone. Many have been vocal enough in diagnosing Kenya’s problems, but haven’t really offered any tangible solutions to assail and cure them.
To have a sustainable and efficient government in Kenya, there should be a separation of the political from the development agenda. The Cabinet Ministers should be professionals in their particular jobs and not Members of Parliament. The Members of Parliament thus, would be left with the single task of making laws and developing their constituencies. Effective laws should also be put in place such that the electorate has the chance to vet and censor the performance and the development record of their Members of Parliament. These would empower the electorate or constituents to recall their Members of Parliament on short notice in case of a poor development record, as happened in California within the US when the Californians recalled their Governor due to poor performance and then went on to elect Arnold Schwarzenegger. This would ensure that there is a separation of interests in as far as the development prospects of the different constituencies and economy sectors are concerned; and that the Members of Parliament act responsibly in their daily public life.
If that is done, the issue of Cabinet Ministers cum MPs giving their constituencies greater priority in the implementation of development projects would therefore be curbed; while job opportunities would be provided for the many Kenyan professionals locally and abroad to help steer the country forward. It would also be a good way of curbing corruption within the country’s political hierarchy. In this regard therefore, each professional would be put in charge of his or her respective area of expertise. For example, an economist would be made a Planning Minister; a sociologist, criminologist or militarily trained person be made Security Minister; a medic be made Health Minister; a civil or mechanical engineer be given the Roads and Housing Ministry, and the like.
The aspect of having one individual hold several public posts should also be avoided. An individual should not for example, be made at one given time, the Chairman, the Director, the Executive Director among other posts in more than one public office, as is the case in Kenyan parastatals and other public offices. This too would provide opportunities for the many Kenyan professionals, most of who are in Diaspora due to lack of better pedestals to prove their mettle as well as develop their country. The rule for public posts should therefore be one-man-one-job. Indeed, there are many qualified Kenyans who can effectively deliver in these positions but have been denied the chance due to the mass political patronage and influence peddling that has often pervaded the appointment of persons to such offices in the country. Giving them a chance can in turn increase public office performance in a country that has often been nagged by the negative ‘isms’ of inter and intra-human interaction, such as tribalism and nepotism.
Kenya’s resource management in terms of taxation and tax collection should be centralized and the administrative management criteria decentralized. This would be in such a way the central government collects the taxes, which they then distribute equally to the administrative regions depending on their socio-economic needs. The administrative regions would be known as states and headed by governors who would then be charged with the implementation of the development projects within their respective areas. Under the states, there would be districts, which would be the final authority charged with the implementation of projects as well as project monitoring and accounting for the progress reports. This kind of structure would ensure that there is an equal distribution of resources throughout the country without the discrimination and sidelining of some areas; as is the case now, where the Northern Rift Valley and North Eastern are not given much consideration in the country’s development agenda and resource distribution.
For these Northern semi-arid parts of Kenya, the government should work hard to materialize their irrigation as they have a fresh water lake, Lake Turkana, and other fresh water rivers; whose quality exploitation can provide adequate food for that part of the country regularly faced with famine and unprecedented droughts. This would require the integration of the area’s populations, most of who are pastoralists, into the entire framework of the irrigation and water supply system such that their way of life will not be suddenly interrupted, but slowly and gradually dissolved for the greater good of their livelihood and the entire country’s.
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Antony Felix O. Simbowo
TakingITGlobal has never been more apt than it is now in providing a forum for expression. This is because the dynamic world has undeveloped challenges that pose a great problem to the growth and daily life of any youth in the global society. What with the incessant wars, poverty, HIV/AIDS, pornography, racism and several other vices creeping into the society in a culture best objectified as vicious gradualism.
Here is where writing comes in handy and the TakingITGlobal literati, glitterati and pundits alike have provided a vital conduit through which these vices, positive and negative dynamism can be expressed.
I am saddened for example, when a promising youth is reduced to a hopeless parasite by drugs. More saddening is when I see the mercilessness, the hopelessness, the dereliction, the lack of love that many children, youth and people are subjected to due to wars, poverty, pornography and such as other negativities which silently and slowly kill the spirit and will within humans! Having gone through such experiences myself, I pray that God gives me the massive ability to be able to help these people to the best of my ability with His guidance, provision and protection. I have often wondered whether the expression "do unto others what you would have them do unto you" is being subjected to relativity. These are the problems which need highlighting and what better forum is there than TakingITGlobal.
I am privileged to be part of this ideologically vimmed and gustoed community.
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